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JEFFERSON CITY, MO. -- For years, travelers on two feet or two wheels have challenged their own safety by crossing over the Missouri River on a narrow strip of concrete separated from high-speed vehicle traffic by only a stripe of paint.

"Probably a mistake on MoDOT's part 20 years ago, we built the bridge, we didn't put it there,” MoDOT Director Kevin Keith said.

This weekend, crews will begin the process of adding a pedestrian/bicyclist attachment to the northbound Missouri River Bridge at Jefferson City.

The attachment is specifically for walkers and bikers; and contractors will spend the next 10 months building it. The schedule calls for the new structure to be open to traffic late next spring.

Construction begins after rush hour Friday evening, by changing the flow of traffic.

"We are going to start placing the barrier out on the Missouri River bridge to give the workers a place to work,” MoDOT Project Manager Jason Vanderfeltz said.

MoDOT will close the Main Street on-ramp and leave it closed for the duration of the project. Vanderfeltz said the McCarty Street access ramp to the bridge will be closed briefly over the weekend while workers get things set up; however, it will re-open for use by traffic during the project.

A concrete median barrier will be used to separate motorists from bridge workers.

"We will have three lanes going across the bridge yet, but they will be narrower,” Vanderfeltz said. “There'll be three 11-foot lanes.”

Motorists have already noticed a large crane at the north end of the bridge. Crews there are already constructing the ramp tower that will get foot and bike traffic from the bridge to the Noren River access parking lot.

Vanderfeltz said that the ramp will have a gradual incline that will allow bikers to ride up and down it.

"That's what makes it ADA accessible and usable for even a wheelchair,” Vanderfeltz said.

As largely a wintertime construction project, MoDOT’s biggest potential challenge is the weather.   "Before the winter actually gets here, they should have a lot of what they need to be able to continue their work,” Vanderfeltz said.